Woke up sore this morning; it was some unusual physical labor yesterday so not surprised. Hope to move into the soreness and it will dissipate. I'll drink this lovely cup of coffee then head out with the doggo for our weekly walk, and then I have a long list of things to cook: squash & tofu, roasted vegetables in a salad with farro, sourdough sardine dog treats, low sugar chocolate cherry cake (to freeze in pieces). Also yard tasks to complete, in the backyard today. Move compost, move garden soil to level beds, plant snow peas, finish planting native plants. Depending on the rain.
When I was bicycling over bridges yesterday, I could see down to the nice bike paths that had been promised to me fraudulently by Google maps, and there were so many people out enjoying them - walking, biking, rollerblading, etc. etc. This is good for motivating me to be active. The other day when I couldn't find gloves and hat I thought, ugh, do I even want to bike? Why not just drive? And out of the corner of my eye I caught out my window, a woman bicycling past. If she can do it, so can I. So I rode and I was fine. So, this is in the plus column for staying here after retirement, the daily movement as a norm. Speaking of retirement (when am I not?), if I can stay super frugal and strategic, and the stars remain aligned, I may be able to give notice at work on my 60th birthday. It is possible, even feasible, that I could be paying off my house loan then. Give a few months notice to save up cash to have liquid assets on hand and allow them time to hire my replacement. And then I would still be young enough for whatever I want to do next. Do I want to work for myself? Find another job (with much less stress)? Be a frugal retiree, possibly take in roommates? Move to a less expensive location? I don't have to decide right now, I just have to stay on track for 3ish more years.
Was just watching one of those short clips of a doctor staying lean and he mentioned closely tracking food for just two weeks. That might be helpful. I'm overwhelmed at the idea of doing it forever, but even just a couple of weeks could be a good reality check.
Speaking of tracking, I spent about $407 on food last month, and it broke down showing some silly spending.
- baking 3% (vanilla)
- beverages 16% (coffee, sparkling water - quite a stockup)
- bread 2% (whole wheat pitas)
- cereal 1% (musli that I eat with yogurt and berries from time to time)
- dairy 11% (milk for yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, half & half)
- grains 3% (quinoa, barley, millet)
- herbs & spices 3%
- legumes 4%
- misc. 6% (pomegranate molasses, bouillon)
- nuts & seeds 11%
- pasta 1%
- eating out 5%
- produce 18%
- protein 10% (fish, meat, eggs)
- snacks 7% (dark chocolate bars, bags of chips, a special treat pastry, etc.)
Even when I grow a lot of my own food, produce just seems to nearly always take the top spending. That's at least partially because of the farmers market, where I spent $42 the past couple of weeks. it's more political shopping than frugal. But I do plan to use it all up this week and enjoy the nice tasty nutritious local food.
OK, time to move my sore body out the door.
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